NOT JUST ANOTHER GAME TO ESKIMOS HEAD COACH
It took some prompting but Maas finally agrees Friday’s matchup with Lions is big
In today’s era of pro sports, coaches and players seem religious about not wanting the highs to get too high or the lows get too low.
You should know that a sports columnist works pretty much on the opposite principle.
There was a time when coaches were partially paid to be tubthumpers in the grand tradition of the Edmonton Eskimos original head coach Annis Stukas, the Loquacious Lithuanian, back in 1949.
Fast-forward to 2017 when a game comes along in late July that cries for a Loquacious Lithuanian.
And Wally Buono doesn’t want the highs to get too high and the lows to get too low. I mean it’s not even Labour Day.
“It’s Game No. 6. It’s not just another game and it’s not more than Game No. 6. Whether it’s Edmonton or whoever else you play, the league this year is as balanced as it has been in many, many years,” said Buono. That’s it?
It’s not more than Game 6? So there was your correspondent at Eskimos practice Tuesday, working on another angle for today’s dispatch, when Eskimos head coach Jason Maas was wrapping up his daily media scrum. I decided to vent.
How come we have a game here like Friday night and I’m hearing quotes like; “but mostly it’s just that it’s the next game” from a prominent player in the Eskimos lineup?
What’s wrong with coming right out and saying this is the biggest freaking pre-Labour Day game in eons and building it up to be every bit as big a deal as a 50-50 carry over ... OK, not quite, but ... What’s wrong with coming right out and saying it’s the biggest game you can ever remember in July in the entire history of CFL?
I suggested to the coach that he’d been around this league 17 years and I’ve been around it a lot longer than that and I can’t remember a scenario like this ever before where, in the month of July, two teams who had both won four straight games, playing each other.
Why am I hearing, “it’s Game 6” or in the Eskimos case “it’s Game 5?”
Maas, with a half-dozen witnesses, turned into the second coming of the Loquacious Lithuanian on the spot and wrote the rest of my column for me.
“You won’t hear that from me,” he enthused. “I personally believe that there are some games you have to find motivation for. If you can’t get up for this one and understand that this one is different, you’ve got a problem.
“It’s 4-0 versus 4-1.
“It’s for first place.
“It’s for the season series. “You live for moments like this.
“I told our guys at the beginning of the week. You put yourself in this position. So love it! “Own it!
“Make the most of this! “Get our crowd excited about wanting to come here to watch us win!
“And defend your turf.” Maas, who goes into the game with a 14-8 career record as a head coach, took a breath and kept going.
“It’s not just another week. We’re all human and when the games get bigger because you are winning, you’ve got to love that part.
“You learn from these types of games because playoff games are different. This is the only game this week that’s 4-0 versus 4-1. There’s something to that.
“You should be pumped up and excited about that. You always want to test yourself against the best. I feel like we’re both playing really good football. We’re playing in our house that we want to defend. We want to win this damn season series ...
“There is so much riding on this game.
“And I want our guys to feel that.
“I want them to feel that energy. “We have someone coming into our building trying to get into first place and win this season series. I want our guys to feel that in our locker-room. I want our guys to feel the need to win this game.
“I don’t want to play that game that it’s just another one on our schedule. Hell, lets own the moment. I like our chances.”